


Ripped From Death's Embrace

by Azei



Series: The Life & Times of Cassandra of Troy [1]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Anger, Angst, Angst and Feels, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Canonical Character Death, Character Death, Character Turned Into a Ghost, Child Death, Complicated Relationships, Dysfunctional Relationships, Emotional Hurt, F/M, Forced Pregnancy, Ghosts, M/M, No Incest, Parent-Child Relationship, Past Rape/Non-con, Past Relationship(s), Prophecy, Resurrection, Temporary Character Death, Therapist Cassandra of Troy, Therapy, they aren't the second coming of Jamie and Cersei, when it concerns Cassandra and Helenus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-25
Updated: 2020-05-25
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:21:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24356491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Azei/pseuds/Azei
Summary: Contrary to popular belief, Camp-Half Blood does in fact have a therapist for their campers.Unfortunately, everyone who meets her doesn't believe in what she has to say.
Relationships: Apollo/Cassandra (Ancient Greek Religion & Lore), Cassandra of Troy & Apollo, Cassandra of Troy & Will Solace, One Sided - Relationship
Series: The Life & Times of Cassandra of Troy [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1790182
Comments: 9
Kudos: 61





	Ripped From Death's Embrace

**Author's Note:**

> I've always loved the myth of Cassandra of Troy and in this one, we're going with the myth that she made no promise to Apollo and thus, did not break anything. 
> 
> She went to Elysium for a reason, so I doubt she would've made such a mistake in life as to break not only her virginal vows as a priestess but also a vow to a god, a vow that would automatically break her other one if she went through with it. She was hardly stupid and Apollo has been known to make mistakes before. In this case, he was in the wrong to curse her as he did.

* * *

Contrary to popular belief, Camp Half-Blood did have a therapist.

No one knows how long she's been there.

The Ares cabin, usually the last to notice her office above Chiron's, will tell you that she was just there. There was no when- she just was. It was the same kind of logic they applied to the gods. There wasn't a when just a was. And they don't visit her. Percy knows that it makes sense - Ares isn't the kind of guy to sit down on a small chair, with bright sunshine walls and happy quotes everywhere in the room, and talk about all his problems to a therapist. And neither were his kids.

The Athena cabin knows she's been there for a long time. But they can never quite pinpoint when. It used to frustrate them to no end. He can remember nights around the fire as they all compared notes trying to find an exact answer of when. Percy had made the mistake once of telling Annabeth to just go into her office and ask her.

That was the wrong thing to say when Annabeth was running on 72 hours of no sleep and 8 cups of coffee in the last 3 hours.

_They_ have asked.

And _she_ has answered.

They just don't believe her.

The Hermes, Demeter, Hephaestus, Dionysus cabins tend to avoid her as much as possible. As does the Aphrodite cabin. It had something to do with the fall of Troy and which side their parents were on. Percy doesn't know a lot about what happened then but he does know one thing: no one avoids the subject more than the Apollo cabin.

He thought that the children of Apollo, the god of healing, would at least go and see the only therapist in camp if only to confer about which campers were in desperate need of a therapy session or maybe an underlying condition that needed medical help. But they don't.

If anything, they avoid her.

They avoid her like the plague and have even gone so far as to send others in their stead. 

Percy once asked Will about it.

He remembers it clearly. The way that Will had stopped short where he was in the infirmary, bandages still in hand, and face pale. His eyes went unfocused and his shoulders shook. Percy had been concerned and went to touch him when he saw his face. And he paused in horror. He will never forget the expression that Will had on his face; it was a look of **utter** self-loathing.

It wasn't directed at anyone but himself. 

Will had then slowly put his bandage down, steadied himself against one of the beds and glanced up at the symbol of his father, _of Apollo_ , and all at once the disgust, shame and hatred came off him in waves. 

* * *

She could remember it like it was yesterday; running through the gardens with Helenus, her cheeks flush as the breath that gave her lungs life ran short, her shining eyes so bright with joy. Her hair was long and glossy, a brown so dark it reminded her of umber, the curls she adored so much painted a pretty picture against her tanned skin. 

She was full of life then.

**She had a life then**.

A family. One that loved her. One that listened to her. One who understood her. She had a twin who was just as beautiful as her and twice as kind because her dear brother, her Helenus, couldn't be anything but. He loved her, truly and unconditionally, and so delightfully. Her other half who stayed when he didn't have to. Her darling brother who didn't treats her as inferior because she was a woman. Who respected her instead because of it. 

She was beloved.

She was a princess of Troy. The daughter of King Priam and Hebuca, queen of Troy. It elevated her against her other sisters, the ones born from concubines and mistresses. She knew they resented her for it; darling little Cassandra, the first princess of Troy.

Adored by her subjects, friendly with nobles and servants, cherished by her mother and treated as equal by her brothers Hector, the Crown Prince, and twin Helenus. Her father treasured her, let her take lessons with her brothers when she was younger and never once mentioned arranging a marriage against her will. Her beloved family...who had loved her. _Had_.

And then it all went downhill. 

She supposed it started when she pledged herself as a priestess of Apollo, her patron. When she had taken the sacred virginal vow and worshipped in the temple every day and night with more devotion than any other. 

* * *

Blinking rapidly, she took a deep breath even though she no longer needed to and asked, "So, Will, what brings you here today?"

Will Solace looks so much like his father that her heart gives a deep pain. Something like a sob wants to make its way up her throat but she pushes it down and quickly writes the date on her notepad, trying desperately to distract herself.

Blue eyes flicked up at her from beneath long lashes,"...how can you look at me?" his voice sounded dead. Weighed down by the burdens and tribulations of life as his soul screams out in protest...it was almost like looking in a mirror. And she barely catches herself from laughing bitterly at the thought.

What irony it was to have a son of Apollo, one who looks so much like him, but to wear her face, her burdens, her barely clinging life.

"Pardon?"

His face was downcast and his eyes shut of their own accord, "How can you sit there and look at me and not think of him?" at this she twitches and her grip on her pen tightens.

"...how can you bear to look at the son of the man who ruined your life and every single thing you've ever known? " at this his voice breaks and a sob breaks through. His hands, tanned just like his, came up and gripped the same shaggy golden hair."Who condemned you to a lifetime of pain and suffering? How can you sit there and not see Apollo when you look at me?"

A sigh escaped her and she set her notepad and pen aside along with her glasses, "Will, look at me."

His hair shook in protest as he seemed to draw in on himself, trying to make himself seem tinier than he was as if to hide from the truth he was asking from her. The truth he asked but was afraid to know.

"What do you see when you look at me?" she asked, quiet and gentle, but tired oh so tired.

_Tired of it all_.

Beautiful blue eyes peeked from between his hands and it was silent for a few moments and for the first time, she knew he was looking at her. **Truly** looking at her. Not just a barely even glance before it was too much to bear.

* * *

She knew what she looked like. It was far from pretty but it was all she had.

Her brown eyes, once so bright and shiny, had sunken into her face and dulled into a muddy brown. The shine was gone, it had left when she was pinned to the temple floor and had been violated in front of Athena's statue. Her rosy cheeks, so full of life, had been taken from her when her patron- _her Apollo who she had worshipped and loved as a priestess should as a friend should-_ had cursed her to a life full of misery and despair.

Her hair, once beautiful dark curls, lacked the lustre it had in life. It had disappeared when she had been sold as a concubine and defiled each night until her womb had born fruit for Agamemnon.

Her skin was pale as it had been the day her children, her twins- the only thing that had ever brought her as much joy as Helenus and her family had once upon a time- were killed in front of her. By Clytemnestra, the wife of the man who bought her and defiled her each night, and her lover, Aegisthus. 

And when she died, when they slit her throat and threw her off the balcony, she had welcomed death. It had been such a comfort to finally feel at peace instead of a never-ending cycle of pain, death and hurt. When she had hit the ground, on the steps going into the palace, all she had felt was a sweet release from her pain. It was all black and her vision swam and then she was there, beside her torn and mutilated body; the testimony to her suffering.

Thanatos had appeared beside her then, a gentle smile on his face and arms welcoming her and his voice was warm when he spoke, "It's time Cassandra."

She had leaped into his arms, crying tears that would never be shed. Her sobs came from a throat that no longer existed and her breath came in short when her lungs no longer breathed for her. Her heart, one that no longer beat life into her body, had given one shuttering thump before it finally stilled as she cried.

"Thank you...thank you..." she had wept in his arms and he embraced her. His arms were warm and strong around her and he would never let go of her, that much she was sure of. 

"Shhh..." he had pressed a kiss at the top of her forehead, so light that she would've missed it if it hadn't been like a balm on her soul," I've got you now. It's time to go home Cassandra. They're waiting for you. They're all waiting for you." 

* * *

His blue eyes were blown wide open at the sight of her. She could tell he had a question, he even had his mouth open and it was at the tip of his tongue but he hadn't voiced it yet.

"W-why...why do you look like a...?" he trailed off.

"A walking corpse?" she chuckled, bitter and exhausted.

He nodded, expression guilty and sad, as he looked on at her body and shivered. His fingers twitched and she knew it was the healer in him. She knew it was a shock. She had nearly screamed herself into oblivion when she had her soul plucked from the fields of Elysian, where her darling Teledamus and Pelops were and placed back inside her decaying body. She had barely been dead a week. 

The still heart in her chest gave a shuddering weak pulse before it started to beat once more, the dust in her lungs stirred, the blood in her body began to travel through her deteriorated veins and her mouth opened in an earth-shattering scream. One filled with such pain and anguish that it had been heard throughout all of Greece. It had been heard high above in the heavens and Zeus had sent his children to investigate.

By the time Hermes, Ares, Apollo and Artemis had made it to her tomb, she had already crawled out of it with her bare hands and was sobbing on the ground, her misery and agony was evident in her wailing. And as the gods stood before her, confusion and shock evident, she knew.

It would continue to bring her suffering and torment for all eternity.

And she wailed for the peace she would never get. She screamed for the children she would never see again. She sobbed for the family she would never get to reconcile with.

For the sweet embrace of death that fate continued to deny her.

She took a deep breath and she turned to Will; face expressionless as her pain bled through her eyes, her eyes that told of her torture, and she spoke-

"Because not even death will stop his curse."

**Author's Note:**

> If you want a part two, I would love to do it. Like one that continues her journey.


End file.
